Welcome!

Welcome to the home of all my explorations, discoveries, successes and even failures in the wonderful world of teaching. First, a little background on me. I have always loved learning and dreamed of finding a job that allowed me to be a perpetual student. In college, at the College of Wooster, I chose a major that I simply loved to study, not one that would necessarily lead to a career. I have always been a self-proclaimed history nerd and I got to indulge in this love of history all throughout my college career. After graduating I ended up working for universities to take advantage of the rich academic feel of the workplace and evening classes at my fingertips. It wasn't until I was working at Penn that I realized that I could have my childhood dream of being a perpetual student through a profession in teaching. I took the risk and quit my job to go back to school full-time at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania where I obtained my Master's of Science in Elementary Education as well as Pennsylvania certification in Elementary, Middle School Language Arts and Social Studies. I grew up with a teacher for a mother, so I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to grow up in a home that fostered curiosity and discovery. This is why it is one my main tenets as a teacher to foster this curiosity in the classroom. Once ignited with a spark of curiosity a student's mind can take them anywhere. I also LOVE to read. As you can see in the picture below I read anything and everything that interests me.

This blog serves as a window into my successes and failures in the classroom. Feel free to look around at the different projects and activities I have tried in my classrooms! Check out my resume here!

Earth Day

For Earth Day this year we wanted to incorporate technology since the students love being "producers" so much. I came up with the idea for the students to come up with Public Service Announcements about the environment. We used the iPads to take video and pictures to put together in iMovie and create their very own PSA! First the students were introduced to the idea of what exactly a PSA is and what makes a good one. We watched a few examples that displayed the idea of K.I.S. (Keep It Simple!) and we're short and sweet. Students were then sent home with the task of brainstorming concerns they had about the environment and possible messages they could convey in their PSA from those concerns. The next day they were grouped and had to share their ideas and pick ONE idea to pursue. They worked compassionately and collaboratively to make a fair decision before starting to fill out a storyboard for their movie and write their scripts. Here is a sample finished product. Hope you enjoy!

Compassionate in Spirit

Kindness counts! As I've mentioned it's been a rough winter here and so I decided to do mini-unit focusing on one of the 5 pillars of our mission statement: compassionate in spirit. We are studying folktales from around the world so I tied it into this unit by using two folktales from an anthology called Rhinos and Raspberries: Tales of Tolerance.

The first story was Supriya's Bowl, about a young girl who takes a stand in her community to do a kind thing for the people in her town when no one else was willing to step up. It is a small gesture that makes a big difference in the town. After reading the story the students discussed what the story meant to them and then we watched a video from randomactsofkindness.org. We discussed what a "random act of kindness" is and brainstormed some examples of these. The students were then charged with creating a Pixie presentation showing at least 5 random acts of kindness they'd like to try to do over the next month. I modeled for them what mine would look like and sent them off working.

My example to model for the students.

Once they completed the first page they were then tasked with keeping a digital log in Pixie of random acts of kindness they themselves commit or that they see friends doing. The students created amazing pieces and really thought deeply about their projects. Below are a few pictures from the day.

Students brainstormed a list of good deeds
before working on Pixie.

Example of student's brainstorm list of good deeds.

Example of student's finished page on Pixie. Each slide is
narrated with explanation of why they included each good deed.

Students worked to add their own spin on
Pixie.

Our next project was based on a story called Old Joe and the Carpenter. After reading we discussed the tools needed to build and repair friendships. The assignment for the evening was to create their very own "friendship toolbox". The toolbox could be anything they wanted, but had to contain items and memories that showed what friendship meant to them and times they may have had conflicts that needed resolving with friends. After sharing examples from my own toolbox I sent them home to work overnight on the assignment. The next day the students brought in their toolboxes and shared with their classmates. Each student had their own interpretation of what friendship is and what resulted was a collection of varied and beautiful representations of kindness and compassion.

Students sharing their friendship stories with
classmates.

Student sharing his mementos in his toolbox.

Student's digital toolbox.

Written explanation of the parts of student's
toolbox (pictured to the left).

Don't just teach, do.

We are in the middle of our unit on Africa that crosses both the social studies and language arts curriculum. One particularly challenging, but fun project revolves around folktales. After reading some folktales and studying their elements the students were tasked with writing their own. In particular the students had to create a pourquoi. We started off by brainstorming in our journals questions or musing we had about animals and nature. Some students wondered why there were seven continents, others wondered how the dog got it's bark. From there they got to choose the pourquoi they were most interested in developing into a full story. Starting off the assignment this way allowed the students to direct their own learning. We didn't tell them what they had to write about, it was something that was interesting and important to them, immediately engaging them more deeply in the assignment. Next, we created some graphic organizers (and another) to help them formulate their ideas. Before handing over the materials, we modeled for them with our own stories. One of the greatest lessons I've learned so far in my teaching is that when teaching writing you have to write yourself. Lucy Calkins recommends this as a part of her writer's workshop program. When the students see you writing and doing the work too, it immediately doesn't feel like such a chore. "If Mrs. Biester can do it, so can I!" Not only is it a great teaching tool to show the students that I am not asking them to do anything I wouldn't do myself, but it's a fun and cathartic process to keep yourself engaged. The reason I became a teacher was so that I could be a "perpetual student" and this is just one of the many ways I continue to live that dream.

Fast forward into the writing process, students are beginning to type their stories. They have taken the graphic organizers and begun to flush out a well written folktale that includes all the elements (magic, repetitive language, a moral, etc.) Some students finish in no time and think that they are done, but what we do with the "I'm doners" is teach them how to stretch and grow their writing. Another valuable piece of advice I got this year came from an article 5 Habits of Great Classroom Coaches by Melinda Kolk. This transformed how I approached the editing process with students. Instead of walking through the writing piece and pointing out places that needed improvement I asked them questions. What's a stronger word we could use here? How were the characters feeling during this? This leading questioning forced the students to think more deeply about their writing and see how to turn their story from a good one into a great one. I didn't ever tell them they had to change anything I simply coached them through the editing process so that next time that they write something they may think back to these suggestions and learn how to follow that process on their own. In the end the students produced beautifully written stories that were totally and 100% their own, no teacher doctoring. The stories were then bound in art class into a true published piece. Below are pictures of my very own creation!

Front cover

Inside title page

SPRING IS HERE!

After a long and brutal winter that has put a time crunch on school work and a damper on everyone's spirits we finally got a taste of spring today! The sun was shining and so were the students. After school, two days a week I spend my time in our after school program. I enjoy getting to interact with kids from other classes and grade levels during this time. Today we had an extra long time outside since the weather was beautiful, no one wanted to go inside and work on homework (myself included!!). During this extra time in a less structured setting I had two encounters with students that left me inspired.

The first was with a kindergartener who I know in passing from seeing him around the school. I noticed he was sitting on the blacktop, alone, on this beautiful sunny day with a flurry of action around him. I walked over to where he was and asked if he was alright and got an "I'm okay" from him. I asked him if he would mind if I joined him as he soaked up the beautiful sunshine. After getting no rejection I plopped myself down on the pavement next to him. I asked him questions about his day, his teachers and other small things to try and draw him out. He responded, but was still shy. Suddenly, he asked me if I had seen the movie Monsters U. I, being a huge fan of kid/animated movies, had of course seen and loved the movie. So we talked animatedly about our favorite characters and the parts we thought were funniest or interesting. During the conversation he sat up straighter and became more and more animated and open. After a brief conversation, maybe about 10 minutes, he decided that maybe it was a spectacular afternoon after all and after saying his goodbyes got up to go play with some friends from his class that were on the playground nearby. This small interaction came as an inspiration to me after having a conversation with colleagues recently about "kid watching" in social situations and when to step in and how. I took a chance and played it cool, but I think what I learned from it was that sometimes kids may need some space, but sometimes they also just need a kickstart to boost their confidence, someone to just sit down next to them and strike up a conversation and listen to what they have to say in order to brighten their day.

Next, after I had moved on from my discussion of movies I struck up a conversation with one of my own students who was drawing with sidewalk chalk on the blacktop. He had begun to draw a beautiful, intricate and very unique design on the ground. I complimented his handiwork and this started an entire lesson on how this student sees art. He explained to me he doesn't draw animals or people, but visualizes shapes in his head and starts off small with a simple shape like a square or a circle and just continues to build out from there. He talked to me about learning this method from his mother and shared pictures that his dad had created. As he talked and I asked questions about the different tools and materials he used I began to see him in a whole new light. Here, our roles were reversed. He was the teacher and I was the student. Not only did he teach me everything he knows about art, but he taught me so much more about him as an individual than I could have ever seen in the classroom. If ever you have the moment to let a student teach YOU something for a change, take it. It can transform a student into a whole new person who is a confident and creative leader.

So my advice? Go forth and take your kids outside the classroom when the weather permits it, you and the students alike may learn something new and feel an extra bounce in your step because of it!

Collaborative in Action

Here is the blog that my colleague began after our conversation.
The first task posed was for each student to find a math story
in their Spring Break vacation.

A fellow colleague came to me today with the idea to bring blogging into our math classes, but wasn't quite sure how to go about structuring it. I suggested that since the students love to share real life connections they have to math we could use this as an avenue to share this "math moments". We will use a class KidBlog where each week we will pose a topic, for example time or money. The students will then have a week to find a time when they used this math skill to solve a real life problem. We've noticed that students can solve the work and do the math, but when asked to explain their thought process they cannot put it into words. So, not only will this exercise boost the students connection of math to the real world, but it will allow them to practice explaining their thinking when problem solving. We are always looking for new ways to get kids problem solving and this is a fantastic avenue for them since it adds a bit of fun with the new age technology while still practicing important skills. With extensive scaffolding and modeling we hope to begin this after spring break. I can't wait to report back about how the student's are enjoying learning the wonderful world of blogging!

Above is the sample post that I modeled to show the class
how they were to use the site.

Roald Dahl Author Study (January 2014)

Roald Dahl is one of my favorite authors and so when deciding where to go next with our guided reading groups I was happy to take on the task of designing a Roald Dahl author study for the whole class. First things first, I gathered as much information about Roald Dahl as possible to put together a bulletin board and introductory lesson.

Reading With Roald Dahl Bulletin Board

As I researched the man I considered to be one of my favorite authors I realized I fell in love even more. Not only was Dahl a fascinating writer that captured readers' attention with wild and wacky stories, but he had lived the most extraordinary life. I couldn't wait to share it with my students through the Smart Notebook lesson I created.

Afterwards, we took a tour of Roald Dahl's amazing author webpage to explore the many fun activities on the site. It is a tremendous resource for teacher activities and information about the author and his books. In addition, there are fun class games and activities. The first one we took on was a writing exercise. Part of what makes Roald Dahl such a fascinating writer is that he uses interesting language (instead of saying "beautiful" he says "dazzling"). Part of his method was to collect lists of words under a heading. I explained to the class that this was a good exercise for great writers to keep an arsenal of words in case they are ever at a loss of how to put something. As a class we chose to list words that we thought fell under the category of "funny". The students came up with words such as hysterical, hilarious, laughable, unbearable, and goofy. At the end of the lesson I charged the students with never again going with the same old boring funny when writing a story again, but to refer back to our list and use one of our fabulous new and interesting words that mean just the same!

The class is split into three different reading groups. I have a group of readers that are on grade level and we have the pleasure of reading one of my absolute favorites, Fantastic Mr. Fox. The students learned what an antagonist is and discussed what exactly makes someone an antagonist. I put together a study guide that contains not only plot and inferential questions, but also includes activities that have the students looking for and even creating figurative language of their own. 

We are still in the midst of reading our books and playing with figurative language. As a final project students will work together as a group to create a sequence of events for the novel within a depiction of our hero, Mr. Fox. Seeing the kids excitement over Roald Dahl and his books has solidified for me that Roald Dahl was successful in his mission: "I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage."

More updates to come as we complete our projects and finish other wacky and wonderful exercises. Next week, the kids will create their own new words and give them life (definitions and illustrations) just as Roald Dahl did!

Student Worksheet: After students
developed a list. They individually
selected one to illustrate for our
class dictionary.

Student Worksheet: Students worked
in pairs to come up with their own
"gobblefunk". We had a pre-lesson on
prefixes and suffixes.